You can make the case that, at the moment, the Saints are the worst 2-0 team in the NFL.

They could easily be 0-2.

I'm sure coach Sean Payton would agree they had several chanc­es to lose to Atlanta, a good team, and perhaps had even more chances to lose to Tampa Bay, a poor team.

Who knows?

Two weeks from now, should they win home games against Arizona and Miami, will the Saints be looked on by some as the worst 4-0 team in the league?

Payton would embrace such a scenario. From what he has seen so far, he has a pretty good idea of what he has, and what he doesn't. He has the quarterback of his dreams, but can he keep him upright? He's desperately searching for a running game to make life easier for Drew Brees, but he's trying to do it with an offensive line that has yet to prove it can be a factor in short-yardage situations and with ball carriers (Pierre Thomas, Darren Sproles, Mark Ingram) you do not put in the make-adifference class.

You might say what Payton has seen in the 2-0 start was the best and the worst from Brees.

When he wasn't throwing two interceptions that led to a couple of Buccaneers' touchdowns, he was making up for it in dramatic fashion.

In the first quarter, he serves up a pick into heavy traffic that leads to Tampa Bay grabbing a 7-3 lead.

In the fourth quarter, he hands the Bucs a pick that is returned 85 yards and gave them a 14-13 lead they would hold until the final play -- when Garrett Hartley kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired.

Brees set up the 16-14 victory with a riveting 31-yard strike to Marques Colston with 21 seconds remaining.

Payton later would say the play that best brought home the Brees magic came in the first quarter, a moment in which his quarterback changed signals as he was about to take the snap, turning tight end Jimmy Graham into a wideopen target for a 56-yard touchdown and a 10-7 lead.

"Doesn't matter what time of the game it is," said Graham. "Drew is magical. With him, we feel we always have a chance."

According to offensive tackle Zach Strief, you could say the same thing about linebacker Junior Galette.

With less than two minutes remaining, with the Bucs in search of what would have been a winning field goal, Tampa Bay was inside midfield.

"They're looking at a third-and-6, and we figured they were going to give it to Doug Martin," said Strief. "He was having a good game. We knew they weren't going to pass the ball there. When Junior makes the tackle 3 yards short of a first down, they miss a 47-yard field goal. I'll always remember Junior's tackle as the game winner."

"What was important at the end," said Payton, "was just getting the stop where they couldn't take a knee and win the game."

A year after an 0-2 start, here was the Saints' defense stepping up and playing a huge role in a 2-0 getaway.

Said Brees: " This is where we imagined ourselves being, and obviously, the way we won these two games has been pretty exciting. These are the ones you have to win in order to get to the goals you set for yourself."